Dramatic footage shows a massive plume of thick black smoke billowing from Chester Zoo's Monsoon Forest habitat as a blaze tears through the popular attraction.

Fears are growing for the scores of exotic animals living in the forest, including Sumatran orangutans, Sulawesi macaques and one of the zoo's newest species - a sunda gharial crocodile.

The building has been dubbed "the largest of its kind" in a UK zoo, and there are huge concerns for the animals - many of which are endangered species.

The Monsoon Forest was built to mimic the Indonesian jungle as part of the zoo's major £40 million Islands project, transforming parts of the attraction into the exotic islands of the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Bali, Sumatra, Sumba and Sulawesi.